The Annotated "The Eleven"

No more time to tell how
This is the season of what
Now is the time of returning
With thought jewels polished and gleaming

Now is the time past believing
The child has relinquished the reign
Now is the test of the boomerang
Tossed in the night of redeeming

Eight sided whispering hallelujah hatrack
Seven faced marble eye transitory dream dollsix proud walkers on jinglebell rainbow
Five men writing in fingers of gold
Four men tracking down the great white sperm whale
Three girls wait in a foreign dominionRide in the whale belly
Fade away in moonlight
Sink beneath the waters
to the coral sand below
Now is the time of returning

After steady inclusion in the live repertoire from 1968 to 1970, "The Eleven"
was dropped, to be revived once, at a concert in Golden Gate Park, on
September 28, 1975.

The piece is famous among Deadheads as a vehicle for furious jamming in an
odd meter, 11 beats to the bar, presenting a unity of title and musical content,
though not particularly of lyric content, since Hunter's countdown begins with
not eleven, but eight.

And of course, counting-rhymes are a major part of the heritage of
nursery rhymes carried on by Hunter and Barlow both. One of the best known
is "A Gaping Wide-Mouthed Waddling Frog" (a cumulative verse, ending up with the following):

"Twelve huntsmen with horn and hounds,
Hunting over other men's ground;
Eleven ships sailing o'er the main,
Some bound for France and some for Spain;
Ten comets in the sky,
Some low and some high;
Nine peacocks in the air,
I wonder how they all came there,
I don't know, nor I don't care; [see "Ripple"]
Eight joiners in joiner's hall,
Working with their tools and all;
Seven lobsters in a dish,
As fresh as any heart could wish;
Six beetles against a wall,
Close by an old woman's apple-stall;
Five puppies by our dog Ball,
Who daily for their breakfast call;
Four horses stuck in a bog,
Three monkeys tied to a clog,
Two pudding ends would choke a dog,
With a gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog."

You note that the odd meter is "presenting a unity of title and musical
content, though not particularly of lyrical content."

Might I suggest another allusion in the 11-beat meter? The most popular
(only?) classical piece I can think of with an 11-beat measure is the Promenade theme from
Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Perhaps the lyrics'
floating from one image to another alludes to this wandering from one
picture to another.

A rather obvious reference to the Eleven came to mind Sunday. If you
read the Acts of the Apostles, you'll see "the Eleven" referred to
frequently: they are of course the apostles who remained after Judas
fled and Christ was crucified and rose from the dead. (Mathias was
added to their number later)
The Eleven were the founders of the Christian church, and the Holy
Spirit came over them at Pentecost (Acts 2). They began speaking in
many different tongues, but everyone present understood the message in
his or her own tongue. This can be seen as an undoing of the curse of
Babel (Genesis 11), where God confused the languages and divided the
people. See http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=babel+pentecost

This all seems quite familiar to those of us who listen to the GD. They
came from different musical traditions, listened to and played with an
even greater diversity of musicians, and turned it all into a musical
whole that speaks in different ways to different people. Everyone
understands the Dead in their own tongue.

Neatly tying the already mentioned symbol of the great white whale to the
story of Jonah in the Bible. Chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah "sees Jonah
saved from drowning by a 'great fish' and praying to God from its belly. God responds and the
fish vomits him out." (The Anchor Bible Dictionary.)
keywords: @numbersDeadBase code: [ELEV]
First posted: March 17, 1995
Last revised: May 8, 2003